THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 231 



Abused mortals ! did you know- 

 Where joy, heart's ease, and comforts grow, 



You'd scorn proud towers, 



And seek them in these bowers ; 



Where winds, sometimes, our woods perhaps may shake,. 

 But blustering care could never tempest make, 



Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us, 



Saving of fountains that glide by us. 



Here's no fantastic mask nor dance, 

 But of our kids that frisk and prance ; 



Nor wars are seen, 



Unless upon the green 



Two harmless lambs are butting one the other 

 Which done, both bleating run, each to his mother ; 



And wounds are never found, 



Save what the ploughshare gives the ground. 



Here are no entrapping baits, 

 To hasten to too hasty fates, 



Unless it be 



The fond credulity 



Of silly fish, which (worldling like) still look 

 Upon the bait, but never on the hook ; 



Nor envy, less among 



The birds, for prize of their sweet song. 



Go, let the diving negro seek 



For gems, hid in some forlorn creek : 



We all pearls scorn, 



Save what the dewy morn 

 Congeals upon each little spire of grass, 

 Which careless shepherds beat down as they pass ; 



And gold ne'er here appears, 



Save what the yellow Ceres bears. 



Bless' d silent groves, may you be, 

 For ever, mirth's best nursery ! 



May pure contents 



For ever pitch their tents 



Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains. 

 And peace still slumber by these purling fountains ; 



Which we may every year 



Meet, when we come a-fishing here ! 



Pise. Trust me, scholar, I thank you heartily for these 

 verses : they be choicely good, and doubtless made by a lover 

 of angling. Come, now, drink a glass with me, and I will 

 requite you with another very good copy : it is a farewell to 

 the vanities of the world, and some say written by Sir Harry 

 Wotton, who I told you was an excellent angler. But let 

 them be writ by whom they will, he that writ them had a 

 brave soul, and must needs be possessed with happy thoughts 

 at the time of their composure. 



